After going through the first 20 or so pages of the discuss list, I haven't seen anything on package management. I didn't see any pkg/package lists, so I'm using the general discussion list. My apologies if I missed one.
What is the current status of package management in the upcoming OSOL releases/Solaris releases? Have we decided on a format/particular type yet? I've been lately toying with PC-BSD on some machines just for giggles, and I've been pretty impressed with PBIs. Same goes for my plethora of OSX machines, with self-contained applications. I remember a lot of the arguments for dynamically linking programs/shared libraries/etc, but a lot of the reasoning (disk space being one I can name offhand) is no longer valid as it really isn't an issue anymore. I was also thinking, seeing as OSOL/Solaris are aiming for stability, it might make more sense for application providers (or Sun, or whomever) to build their applications/etc using certain library versions that are *known* to work/work well. Then leave it up to the application providers to keep the libraries current when security issues arise/etc. This might see it as passing responsibility, but at least from how I see things - we should. The OSOL community/Sun should be concerned with stability/security of the OS itself, application providers should be concerned with security/stability of their applications. It also removes a lot of the mess that can arise when installing things, such as dependancy issues. It's no fun to try and sort those out. Uninstalling can be scary, etc. This type of solution would sort that. We could do a hybrid of sorts, combine the flexibility of ports (FreeBSD ports for instance), but the singular all-inclusive packaging of PBIs or OSX applications. Here's how I'd envision this working: #1 - Application provider provides a "source package" of sorts, which includes ALL libs/headers/whatever needed to compile application, plus source to application. There is a configuration script in this package that allows you to select which/what options you'd like to have the application built with. Finally, there would be some kind of automated build tool (or just simple makefiles/whatever) that would allow a very simple build of a "binary package". The logic behind this is making it easy to build php with support for X Y Z module that you need, but nothing else. Or, easily change this later, without worrying that the libraries/etc have changed and you'll have incompatibility issues. #2 - A (new) OSOL/Solaris package management tool; since the applications would not be linked against anything on the system itself, only against libraries contained within the package, removal is easy as well. For an automated update tool, it'd be nice to have some kind of central registry of installed packages, thus the "install package" and "deinstall package" options/tools - but since they are self contained, a simple cp or rm should suffice if people feel the need. I think this kind of solution would allow application providers to focus on their application, having control over a lot of "variables" they normally do not have. It would also allow system administrators to deploy applications built as required quite easily, completely avoiding the HEADACHES I've had to go through to get some software compiled/installed/etc on OSOL/Solaris. If the source packages are created in the way I mentioned, it'd be rather trivial to write a build tool/script/whatever that would autobuild with the selected configuration and generate a binary package file that could be installed or deinstalled in one simple step. This would also allow the OSOL community/Sun to focus on the OS, and let the application developers focus on their applications, as it should be. I know I'm putting myself in the line of fire with this post/mail, but I wanted to throw it out. I'm sure other people have suggested things like this before, but I didn't see the conversations and I didn't notice them when I went back around 20 or so pages. My apologies in advance if I have duplicated another posting. Cheers, David PS - Any new news on an estimated/guesstimated Solaris 11 officially suported date? I gotta get something more modern on my desktop for development! I've got Solaris Express for my "let's see this new cool feature" type usage, but I'd like something super stable to slap on workstations. ;) Sorry for the unrelated question. :p This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
